The enigma of pain in children: an overview.

During the last 2 decades, a vast amount of information has been obtained about the sensory system responsible for pain perception, with the result that there have been dramatic changes in the understanding of how pain is experienced and how pain can be modified. However, recent advances in the management of pain have been confined almost exclusively to adults. Consequently, our understanding about pain perception in infants, children and adolescents, our knowledge about the prevalence of different pain problems for children and data about the effectiveness of various pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain control methods are limited. This article explores the issue of the undertreatment of acute, recurrent, chronic and cancer pain in infants and children.